


Ready or Not

by AspenCe



Series: Two Apartments, One FamILY [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Are Twins, Fluff, Gen, Hide and Seek, Tags May Change, tags will update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:21:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27820654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AspenCe/pseuds/AspenCe
Summary: Sometimes, you have to put aside your disagreements in favor of brotherly bonding.orThe story of Remus and Roman and their ever-growing game of hide-and-seek, from the ups and downs and the in-betweens to the downright ridiculous.
Series: Two Apartments, One FamILY [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035831
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	1. Peek-a-Boo

June 4th, Age 0

Roman is born first, crying loudly, two weeks early. Remus is born five minutes and twenty seconds later, concerningly quiet. That quickly changes, until they’re both wailing as loud as they can, their cries intertwining and making the nurses flinch. 

When they’re next to each other, just touching, they quiet down and just stare into each other’s eyes, heterochromatic gaze meeting heterochromatic gaze in stunned silence. 

They start crying again when there’s a flash of light and their mother Éveline laughs, a mix between crying and laughing, and their father, Rick, smiles sheepishly. The doctor denies smiling, but she definitely does.

April 19th, Age 1

Roman is screaming as Remus takes the single paci from his mouth once again, popping it into his own with a quickly satisfied growl. Whoever thought this was a good idea, Rick thinks as he goes to get another paci, is really an idiot. 

Then Roman is quiet, and Remus starts whining, and then there’s a shriek. Rick looks behind him to find out what happened, and he sees Remus on top of Roman, little pudgy hands trying to snatch the paci out of his twin’s mouth again. Rick laughs and goes to give Remus the second paci, and then rights both of his babies before he sees Eveline clicking off the camera and he decides that he can go back to the latest piece of music he’s learning.

“I told you it was a bad idea,” he tells her as he holds the frame of the hallway entrance, looking back with a chuckle.

“Shut up,” Eveline laughs. “It was cute!”

January 22nd, Age 2

Peek-a-boo is the twins’ favorite game. It can keep them entertained for hours, and it immediately cheers them up when they’re upset. Éveline and Rick love it, too, for the amount of trouble it saves them. 

So when Éveline accidentally splashes oil from the cooking pan onto Roman’s arm and the boy starts wailing, the first thing she does is get a rag and wet it with cold water, running it over her baby’s arm. The second thing she does is go set him down next to Remus, who’s peering up from the corner of the kitchen floor with a concerned expression. And finally, the last thing she does is ask dramatically, “Where’s Re?” with her hands over Remus’ eyes. 

Roman gasps, and his lip trembles, but then Éveline opens her hands like a window and says brightly, “There he is!” 

She sets off a game that will last however long she needs it to. When she goes back to cooking, she hears giggling that nearly makes her squeak in delight and babbled words that she can sometimes make out as a “peek-a-boo!” or a “where is me?” but is mostly indecipherable nonsense.

When she looks behind her to check on them, Éveline sees Remus hiding behind his splayed hands, Roman looking confused, and bright smiles accompanied by gurgling laughter. 

She’s so lucky, she thinks, that she has such perfect twins - they keep each other entertained and happy, and sure they fight over pacies and stuffies and toys and absolutely everything, but it’s so much easier to take care of babies when they don’t need your constant attention. 

Suddenly Roman shrieks, and she whips around in fear, only to find that Remus has his brother’s hand in his mouth and is slobbering adorably and disgustingly. She laughs and bends down, gently removing Roman’s hand from his twin’s mouth and saying faux-sternly, “Now, now, play nice, mon chérie garçons. No biting!”

March 3rd, Age 4

“Ro! Ro! Let’s play hide-n-seek!” Re jumps onto Ro’s bed, startling the older twin into waking up with a yelp. He blearily blinks away the sleep and is soon wide-awake, registering Remus’ proposal with enthusiasm.

“Yeah! Yeah!” he scrambles out of bed, hopping when one foot gets tangled in the sheets, and grins widely at his brother. “Okay! You go hide, I’ll find you!”

Re giggles happily and runs off, while Ro bounces in excitement and slaps his hands over his eyes, counting loudly between giggles, “One! Two! Free! Four! Five! Um… seven! Eight! Nine aaaand ten! Ready or not, here I come!”

He runs out of their room, looking around excitedly, trying his very best to hear all the littlest sounds. Re isn’t very good at being quiet, he thinks as he sneaks down the hall and spies around the corner like a hero in the movies. His twin is giggling behind the couch, a hand over his mouth. 

Ro isn’t very good at being quiet either, because Re hears him and shrieks, running out from behind the couch and rushing towards the kitchen. Ro doesn’t hesitate before running after him, shouting, “No fair! I found you!”

“Nu-uh, you hafta catch me!” Re argues, hiding behind Ma’s legs. She’s cooking something, but Ro only wonders about it for a second before he giggles and darts forward to try and catch his twin, who manages to dodge his hand and start out the kitchen to the living room again, before slamming into Da and falling on his bottom. 

Ro freezes as Re’s face is suddenly one of surprise, and Da asks worriedly, “You okay, R- um, squirt?” 

Re just starts laughing, giggling uncontrollably, and Ro relaxes, laughing with him and quickly forgetting that he was ever worried in the first place. He runs forward and pokes Re in the shoulder, then runs off shouting, “Your turn to count!”

He looks around wildly as he hears Re counting, “One! Two!”

He goes into the bathroom and climbs into the tub, pulling the curtains shut behind him and giggling under his hand as he settles in and listens carefully. “Five! S - uh - bleh. Seven!” 

Quieting down and muffling his giggles with his hand as best he can, he watches the edge of the shower curtains expectantly and listens as Re finishes counting - “Ready or not, here I come!” - and then starts looking, giggling all the while. 

He hears Re check the living room first, then hears him run past the bathroom to their room, and he has to fight the bubbles of laughter trying to escape him. He feels his heart beat  _ super fast  _ and feels a swell of pride at his good hiding spot. 

A few seconds later, the curtains are ripped open, and he shrieks with laughter as Re tackles him in a death hug. “Found you! Your turn to count again!”

This time, Ro finds Re hiding under the bed in Ma and Da’s room, and they find a stuffed octopus covered in dust bunnies and forget about their game in favor of arguing over who it belongs to.

May 17th, Age 4

“One, two, free…” Ro’s counting, and Re sneaks into the kitchen and quietly opens a cabinet. This will be his best hiding spot yet, he thinks, and Ro will  _ never _ look here! He climbs inside and curls up, closing the cabinet door behind him as much as he can. 

“Five, six! Seven…” 

He giggles a little and shifts position, trying not to make too much sound. 

“Eight, nine, ten! Ready or not, here I come!”

Through the crack where the cabinet door doesn’t close all the way, Re can see a sliver of the empty kitchen. He hears the sound of a door slamming open, and then Ro running to another room. 

Time almost blurs together, in a mix of adrenaline and expectantly watching the crack, until he hears the sound of his twin bursting into tears. “I can’t find him! Re! Re! Where are you!?”

Re immediately shoves open the cabinet door and scrambles to get out, looking around frantically for his twin. When he finds him, crying by the dinner table, Re frowns determinedly and runs forward, wrapping his arms tightly around Ro and rambling, “I was hiding in a cab-i-net, Ro! I’m sorry I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you sad!”

Ro sniffles and hugs him back. His voice is muffled and wet, but Re can still understand it. “It’s ok. It’s fun! I jus’ didn’t think about that…”

“Wanna play again?” Re asks nervously. Ro frowns a little. 

“Maybe tomorrow,” he decides, and Re is already nodding along. “We can watch cartoons?”


	2. Scared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First half of kindergarten - Re’s having a hard time.

August 10th, Age 5

“Hi! You wanna play with uth?” someone with almond skin and two pigtails asks, a kickball under her arm. She looks so cool! High socks, nice shoes, a striped shirt, and split bangs. Ro wants to say yes, because kickball sounds fun! But when he turns to Re to see his reaction, he realizes that his twin is practically vibrating, hands flapping nervously and heels bouncing up and down. He looks so scared, Ro immediately feels bad. 

But… he still wants to play. He looks at the red ball longingly, but when Re gasps for breath, he shakes his head and smiles. “Sorry, I can’t. May-be later?” The girl shrugs and deflates a little, but recovers and turns away, dropping the ball onto the grass and kicking it over to her friend, a skinny freckled boy with red hair. 

“You can s-s-say yes,” Re says, and Ro turns to look at him, brows furrowed in concern. He shakes his head determinedly. He was the older twin, and so he had to be the bestest brother ever! That meant no leaving Re behind, no matter what. 

“Nope! We can play by ourselves, I don’t care,” he plops down on the damp grass to accentuate his point, and Re smiles shakily and sits down across from him. “Okay, so, what should we play? I wanna be a prince!” 

Re lights up. “Ooh! If you’re a prince, fen I wanna be a duke! Like in that one book!” 

“Yeah yeah!” Ro agrees, and then frowns. “But we don’t have swords…”

Re looks around, and so does he, but he can’t find any swords. Then Re gasps and jumps up, pulling Ro up with him, and then they’re running across the playground to the line of trees by the fence. Re bends down and picks up two sticks, just the right size for two swords! 

He takes the one Re offers him, and then they both grin and hold out their swords, crossing them in a salute. They pull back, and then they start their duel, scissoring their sticks, one, two, one, two. It’s simple, and Ro wonders why all those people in the movies have so much trouble with it. Ooh! Maybe they’re just that good! Like, like, um… pro-diggies! 

The bell rings after only like, two minutes, and then they have to leave the sticks by the tree and run to go inside the classroom for snacktime. Re beats him there, which totally isn’t fair! He started before he was ready! 

“Okay, Roman, Remus, take your seats,” Mr. Toddly says with a smile, but he looks at the wrong twin at the wrong name. Ro looks at Re. Re looks back. They grin and take each others’ seats, pulling out the wrong lunches. They’re the same, but Ro doesn’t care, and he knows that Re doesn’t either. It’s the fun that counts! Nobody can tell who’s who! It’s so funny, and he’s grinning for the whole rest of the day.

Then it’s time to go home, and on the bus Ro leads them both to the very back where the wheels and the back window are. They settle in next to each other, Ro taking the window seat, and Re sits with his feet on the back of the chair in front of them. 

“Let’s play a game!” Ro whispers in Re’s ear, grinning brightly. 

His twin grins back. “What game?”

“Um…” he hasn’t thought that far yet. He casts his eyes about, looking for a suitably interesting subject, and then shakes his head and blurts out, “Eye-Spy! You go first!”

“Okay!” Re looks around, and Ro sees his eyes catch on something, but he can’t pinpoint it before Re’s looking at him and saying, “I spy, with my… green eye,” they both snicker a little at the joke, “...something blue!”

Ro looks around, and immediately goes for the most obvious guesses. “The sky?” Re grins and shakes his head. “The backpack over there?”

“Nope!” Re replies, popping the ‘p’ with a giggle.

“Okay, um, is it - ” his eyes catch on a flash of blue out the window and he says hurriedly, “that street sign?” 

Nope, Re shakes his head again, giggling. Ro groans and leans his head back - and sees a word written in blue paint on the ceiling. He sits up with a rejuvenated grin and asks excitedly, “Is it the word on the roof!?” 

“Yeah!” Re pokes his tongue out happily. “Your turn!” 

They play all the way until the bus stops at home, and then they pout. Well, only Re’s pouting, ‘cause Ro wins the most rounds, but whatever. The stupid bus-driver shouldn’t make them stop their game!

Re elbows him and he scowls, pushing him as they get off the bus, but then Re just giggles and gets back up, grass stains on the knees of his pants. Ugh.  
  


December 25th, Age 5

The multi-colored christmas lights are the only thing illuminating their small, round faces, and the presents wrapped in green and red. They’re right next to each other, cuddling close to the same corner of the no-longer-gray couch, breathing in sync and just staring into the little pointed bulbs of light. 

Re thinks this is his favorite holiday. He knows it’s Ro’s. It’s got their colors! Ro is red, he’s green, and put them together and that was Christmas! But he doesn’t know. He knows he likes the way everything feels so different, so special, like today is untouchable. He knows he liked putting up all the decorations with Ro, that was super fun! He knows he can’t wait for presents time. He knows that he loves the way his heart is beating and he can feel it, and he can feel Ro’s, and he knows that he’s happy.

But something feels wrong. Something feels like… like he’s too hot, and too cold at the same time. He likes being next to Ro, that makes it better, but something about the shadows around them and the dim lights and the complete silence apart from their breathing and a few random noises makes him feel like he’s sinking. He doesn’t know what’s going on, doesn’t understand - it’s Christmas! Why is he so… scared? Ha! He doesn’t get scared! That’s  _ Ro’s  _ thing. 

But what if there’s someone in the house? What if that click was someone opening the window and that buzzing sound is them humming, covering up the sound of their footsteps? What if there are monsters in the dark, and they’re just waiting for the moment that he lets down his guard so they can pounce and - and - and bite off his head!? 

He’s not scared of the dark. He’s  _ not.  _ He’s perfectly safe, because there’s two of them, and their parents are in their room, and if the monsters try and get him then they’ll come save him and everything will be okay. He’s  _ not,  _ he tells himself as his breaths come shallower and fall out of sync with his brother’s. He’s not. But… he feels like crying, and he never cries! He’s not a crybaby like Ro! 

“Are you okay?” Ro whispers, and it’s so  _ loud,  _ and he can barely understand him. 

He nods and buries himself closer into Ro. To keep him safe. The monsters can get him, but they can’t get Ro! Never never never! He  _ needs  _ Ro. No matter what. 

He whines despite himself after he hears another sound that could be monsters or a burglar or  _ anything,  _ and his lip trembles. Ro sits up and looks at him worriedly, eyes shining with concern, and Re tries to stop crying but he can’t and he just wants hugs and cuddles and he wants it to  _ stop being nighttime  _ because he’s  _ scared  _ and he doesn’t  _ like it.  _

“Ma!” Ro shouts, and Re hears it, he does, but he’s trying to breathe and he can’t and he feels like he’s drowning. What’s  _ happening?  _ Why is he so scared? It’s too dark! It’s too dark and too bright and too loud and too quiet and there are monsters - he’s scared and he hates it, he doesn’t want to be scared, but he can’t breathe and it  _ hurts  _ and he’s crying - 

He feels arms wrapping around him and he hears someone asking if he’s okay, what happened, but he doesn’t and he’s scared - 

“Shh, shh, it’s okay just breathe, okay? Un, deux, trois, quatre, okay? Breathe in for me, Remus, you’re okay, just breathe…” 

He tries, but it’s hard and it hurts. He’s still crying. He tries again, because now Ro looks scared, and that’s not right because he has to protect Ro! He’s supposed to save him from the monsters! He breathes in and it’s a little easier, but it’s still hard, and he buries himself into the warmth and cries.

“Roman, what happened?” Ma asks above him, and he sniffles.

“I don’t know,” Ro wails. “I didn’t do anything!”

“‘Was the monsters,” he mumbles, looking up, voice still wet. “They were gonna get Ro.”

“Oh,  _ mon cheri,  _ it’s okay. There aren’t any monsters.” Her voice sounds funny when his ears are pressed against her chest.

“Really?” he asks, biting his lip. He’d heard them though!

“Absolutely.”

“...Okay.”

He doesn’t remember what happens next, but he thinks that he probably falls asleep, because the next thing he knows Ro is shaking him awake and sunlight is streaming through the blinds making lines on the carpet. 

He yawns and blinks heavily, then sees the Christmas tree and lights up, snapping awake without another moment of exhaustion. He jumps up, knocking Ro off-balance, and shouts enthusiastically, “PRESENTS!” 

He runs forward and starts sorting out the presents, satisfied to find that there are exactly three presents for everyone and that all of  _ his _ are wrapped in green while Ro’s are wrapped in red and Ma and Da’s are striped. Ro joins him, and re-counts, making him huff. Of course he doesn’t trust Re to make sure that everyone gets the same amount, hmph. 

He forgets that as soon as Ro unwraps his present and lights up at the stuffed octopus that Re had stolen from him a month ago, and then he opens Ro’s gift to him and practically vibrates in delight at the box filled with rocks. They’re not very pretty rocks, but they’re so cool! They’ve got all sorts of cool textures! 

“Thanks Ro!” he beams. 

“Thanks Re!” Ro parrots back.

Re tackles him in a death hug, because that’s just what he does now. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m trying - so hard - to write fluff. Can you tell?


End file.
